The Art of Editing

Following the great Russian filmmaker V. I. Pudovkin’s emphatic statement that “the foundation of film art is editing,” this course is specifically designed for beginning and intermediate filmmakers, editors, directors, producers, and film buffs who want to learn more about the dynamics of editing and the editor’s craft. In a narrative film especially, editing contributes to the plot’s manipulation. How is space organized from shot to shot, and how does editing achieve a coherence and unity in the face of the potential disruptive shifts of time and place? By watching examples of great films, learn how master filmmakers use types of cuts and dissolves, continuity and discontinuity editing, duration editing, elliptical editing, rhythmical editing and graphic matches, jump cuts, diegetic and non-diegetic inserts, overlapping editing, and more. Clips from films by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane),
Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho),
Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining),
Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather),
Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas),
Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin),
Yasujirô Ozu (Tokyo Story),
Jane Campion (Top of the Lake),
and Wong Kar-wai (Fallen Angels),
among others, will be shown.